Dubstepforum.com

if you wanna make good hip hop, whatever you do, don't listen to what's on the radio these days

If you're having a hard time making a hip hop riddim, the first thing i would recommend is try dubbing an already existing hip hop riddim. Take samples from it and recreate the drum pattern into something that slightly matches up...make it your own style. Seems like a good way to begin. Here's an example of my attempt to dub Biggie's "Machine Gun Funk." It's not too exciting, just a hip hop riddim...it get's more interesting around the choruses (like at 0:55):

Soundcloud

It also might be a good start to make something kinda downtempo, like a Devin the Dude style riddim. Here's an examples of a relatively downtempo style hip hop riddim i made (pretty basic stuff)...changes up around the chorus on this one as well:

Soundcloud

But really there's no rules to hip hop riddims, right? Just gotta make something that an emcee can feel and flow to.

narcissus wrote:if you wanna make good hip hop, whatever you do, don't listen to what's on the radio these days

word!

i hate it how this is NEVER shared on any forum...

dont quantize everything....

thats the whole twist about being credible with a hip hop banger... u can quantize SOME elements.. but not everything... this very particulairty comes from the whole soul thang...

There are some tips tho :

1) short snare sounds (then stack something longer if u feel like it would help)
2) keep it simple (=pure=dope=tight)
3) make ur melody a part of ur rythm... it has to be some kind of a play between the his and the lows... so it ''confirms'' the whole bounce of the thing

it aint that different from dubstep.. just use less verb (L.O.L)

+ keep it minimalistic... if it aint banging with only 4 of the sounds ur gonna use... it wont bang

word life son

often with hip hop I find the straight hihats are what is needed (often very different from dubstep), also a kick pattern which is two or four bars long, not repeated every bar, and also with the bass co inciding with the kick quite a lot. Often the bass just is the kick...

If you're going for the experimental hip-hop sound my biggest advice would be to listen to music of heads such as:

Marley Marl
Pete Rock
Easy Moe Bee
Premo
Madlib
Jay Dee
DR Period
Da Beatminerz
RZA
...and so on, just to name a few. Laid the blueprints for all the leftfield shit.

poisson disturbance wrote:

narcissus wrote:if you wanna make good hip hop, whatever you do, don't listen to what's on the radio these days

word!

Right? No production value or cinematics in that shit, and noones tellin stories or speaking any wisdom, same low rate lead synth n thump thump basses, same idiots talkin about thier spoiled celeb life...

Oh... n nice list Stay Forging.

the materialism is what gets to me the most..

narcissus wrote:the materialism is what gets to me the most..

What, dontcha got gold fronts n diamond studded goblets in your kitchen? Your just not pimp without crunk cups.

Make the drum beats loose, but have the kick hitting on the start of the bar tight most of the time. Loosen up different parts of the drums so there not in time on different parts of the song. Like hi hats not in time for one bit, have drums following each other say like a tom then quickly after a snare or something

Ldizzy wrote:i hate it how this is NEVER shared on any forum...

dont quantize everything....

never seen our burial threads eh? shuffle is key in dub, dont worry, they stress it here

my_fickle_eye wrote:Make the drum beats loose, but have the kick hitting on the start of the bar tight most of the time. Loosen up different parts of the drums so there not in time on different parts of the song. Like hi hats not in time for one bit, have drums following each other say like a tom then quickly after a snare or something

But, both of these, bear in mind, you wanna put the off shit in where the mcs flow tells it too... listen to alot of hiphop, n youll hear samples n bass slides n shit that follow the mc more then the rhythm...

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3ymfytnrqnm
last beat i wrote for a rmx hip hop version off an acapella vs orig production rhymes written to

Basic A wrote:

Ldizzy wrote:i hate it how this is NEVER shared on any forum...

dont quantize everything....

never seen our burial threads eh? shuffle is key in dub, dont worry, they stress it here

my_fickle_eye wrote:Make the drum beats loose, but have the kick hitting on the start of the bar tight most of the time. Loosen up different parts of the drums so there not in time on different parts of the song. Like hi hats not in time for one bit, have drums following each other say like a tom then quickly after a snare or something

But, both of these, bear in mind, you wanna put the off shit in where the mcs flow tells it too... listen to alot of hiphop, n youll hear samples n bass slides n shit that follow the mc more then the rhythm...

yeah thats true i suppose if you get a good mc he can mc to your song around the effects bass slides and stuff probs best to get the bulk of then send it off to an mc and do that stuff afterwards though.

the key here is syncopation... thats what keeps your head noddin. a drum loop like A A A B can be simple yet effective. each letter represents one bar btw... or A B A D. layered fat sub kicks.... grainy snares... clicky hats... mmmm.

www.glitchhopforum.com

I dunno...I find hip hop much much much easier to make than dubstep.
Who's got the key to dubstep beats?

Some (useful) tips http://www.youtube.com/user/KayKayONTHEBEATZ

these two videos should help...it destroys every concept of how a hip-hop beat "used" to be made
Ski Beatz - This is an example of taking a loop and placing the drums in the right places

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY8EIoMelFc

there used to be rules...like don't flip a sample someone else has flipped if you can't do it better.
or, don't jack other people's snares and kicks.
i think young cats got tired of the legends making rules and broke the door open so there are no rules now.
When i learned that Ski just lifted a snare and a kick from existing hip-hop records it spoiled the art for me. that's just my opinion though.
i still take a lot of time and effort to create and shape my individual snares and kicks...that's just me...you can take a raw drum sample and freak it anyway you want...or take someone else's.
key to this video is
the main loop
the 16th triplet feel on the hi hats and where the kicks land (very 90's era)
the Nas chorus loop
the filtering out of a bassline from another record and layering under the main loop (lo pass filter)
nevermind the gear...you can do this on any piece of equipment these days.

this is just one style of sampling. real simple.

this video is kinda funny to me...it just shows the complete disconnect there is in America between generations and of course...Kayne haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgeuM-MjBks
pay attention...the beat is wack because it's half way done but it SWINGS just nice!!!! i'm sure with the right sample loop on top it it it would be nice.

so what if you have no knowledge of funk, soul, R&B, jazz, and no turntable to sample from? how do you make hip-hop beats?

check this video out butfirst, shout out to Battlecat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcvhpbcK4lo

this beat was probably all presets and premade samples from off a DVD.
listen to the placement of all the things though and how he builds by layering...he's even skratching in a sample over the track. that's hip-hop right there. a nice Rhodes sound on top of it to sweeten the layers.
a nice jazzy guitar riff could have worked as well...he could have had a bass player come in and play that line too but instead it's a preset and he flips it.
the elements of doing things in layers is key. because then you drop things in and out to create sections.

now my 2cents. flame if you want since i'm the n00b around here.
i know a lot of people must think this is difficult but those who have a love for ALL genres of music can figure this out easily.
the other thing about hip-hop producers here in the US is that cats have been in the game for a long time or at least have been exposed to funk and soul and R&B for a long time as well. it's part of family history and culture.
people are mentioning Dilla but they need to understand that he came from Detroit and anyone who has ever lived in Detroit knows the legacy and history of the music that came from there.
work on the craft and be patient. listen to a lot of genres of music and start to pick up on style, rhythm, and phrasing.
on a Midi sequencing grid things tend to get trapped...hit the OFF on the grid and free yourself and see where things land...if you're looking for commercial appeal make sure there are snares on the 2 and the 4 of the beat or else it's just not radio friendly...
peace

regend wrote: now my 2cents. flame if you want since i'm the n00b around here.

Nah, not on a post like that, nice referencing.

Here's my 2cents, and really prolly worth 2 cents, but here it goes:

If you wanna make hip hop, play your beats out. If you watch 100 videos of hh producers making beats, you're going to see an mpc in like at least 90 of them. No joke. Once you've worked with an MPC, you'll start to see the extent to which the technology has influenced the genre.

Doesn't mean you need an mpc to make hip hop, but that shit will get you closer.

Cutting up beats and melodic lines into a 4x4 grid, and re playing them with your groove, is what hh is all about.

If you're taking my advice, then take this advice, you can make an MPC clone with a pad kontrol and battery or some other drum sampler. It's much easier to sample, and edit your samples on the computer, and then set them up in Battery. It's much much MUCH easier than doing it in an mpc. But after that phase, you've just gotta turn on your click track, and start banging out your beats.

As far as arrangement and structure, just check out how your particular subgenre handles it, by looking at a few track's wav's in your sequencer. See where the change ups happen, how sections are bridged. That'll give you a basic frame work so you can see how long sections should go.

I love making hh beats. Straight no rules, sky's the limit.

Dirty South beats are not that difficult to make. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPHIPe2Ffc